Gorkhan
Gorkhan are sapient centauriformes native to the planet Rgorok. They are allies with the Zeinestrel, and are mainly researchers and traders of the Polemos galaxy. They have very few actual colonies, with most of their civilization living in large 'citadels' floating through space. Physiology Gorkhan are tall centauriformes, reaching up to 3 meters in height, while they only reach around 3.2 meters in length, rather out of proportion compared to others. They have triple-jointed legs and arms (not including hand attatchments.) They have a decaying exoskeleton, and a beak-like mouth covered by a thick, fleshy flap. Most of the exoskeleton that still remains is made out of hardened keratin 1.5-2.5 centimeters thick. This is centered around the facial area, and surrounds the chest area. There is also plating of this on their fingers and some on their legs. Exposed skin has a porous look to it, where the pores emenate a sort of mist to expel waste, like sweat. The eyes have an extra layer of keratin surrounding the sockets. Gorkhan eyes are relatively advanced, so they can see throughout the whole visible light spectrum, and a little into infrared and quite a lot into ultraviolet. Their eyes are usually a red to magenta hue, while some accordances of purple and indigo have been recorded. Their visual processing works much like a human's, reversing the image, and letting the brain recieve it, then flipping it again. However, this is repeated 3 times, as there are 3 actual retinae. Since they are omnivorous, they have a toothed beak. These teeth are usually sharp in the front, then progress to well-developed molars in the back. Their jaw is not very strong, since they were only developed for eating soft meats and weak plant matter. Their arms have three joints not including the wrist joints. Both their second elbow and shoulder are ball and socket joints, capable of many different kinds of movements. They have another elbow with a hinge joint, which allows further up and down movement. Their wrist is a combination of a socket and hinge joint, with a hinge directly in front of a socket, allowing maximum movement capability. This makes a total of 5 joints in the arm, not including fingers. Their hands are oddly shaped, and are symmetrical. They begin with a mitten shaped center, which can bend freely at the tip, creating a fist with the fingers clenched. They have 4 fingers, two on each thin side of the hand, folding in with very little bone structure. These are very rough, and can hold slippery and low-friction surfaces. Their body has two pelvic regions for both pairs of legs, separated by a ribcage containing secondary organs and blood pumping stations. There is a thick backbone along the entire body, protecting a spinal cord. Every two vertebrae (which there are almost 50 of), a thick, bone-cased nerve branches off to control major parts of the organism. They have a six chambered heart and three lungs in their main organ region, with an approximate value of 100-115 heartbeats per minute and 25 breaths per minute. They take in air through slits on their neck and sides, and they breate in simultaneously. They breath out through excretory pores, allowing waste to become mist as it exits. They do not have the ability to stop breathing, quite a hindrance for swimming. They have three stomachs for total liquidization of chyme in the digestive system, where the liquid then settles in a small organ which acts as a balloon, slowly filtering waste fluids off to pores, then making the fluids into mist. Their bodies can handle the many acids inside of their stomachs, as it disperses quickly. Males tend to be larger, while females have a greater mental capacity and creativity level. There is little other dimorphism between the genders. Diet Gorkhan are omnivorous, and eat a wide variety of hydroponically grown plants and fungi, and meat grown from stem cells. They cannot adapt easily to alien foods, and they must modify their rations when eating it. They take very little enjoyment in food, and have very little taste. Reproduction Gorkhan are sexual and viviparous, with two genders. They reproduce quickly, and have a litter of 4-6 babies. They gestate for around 19 months, and takes a rather long time for the actual body to form due to the exoskeleton being formed during gestation. Fertilzation almost always occurs, causing the largest population in the galaxy, except for the Yuharon, for it is unknown what their numbers are. Childbirth is rather easy, and each child is born around 130 seconds after the last. It takes around 29 years to grow to typical size, but they grow continuously throughout their lives. Most Gorkhan live to the age of 170. Intelligence and Society Gorkhan have medium rate speeds for electrical impulses inbetween an area and the brain, varying from 70-260 kph. Their brain density is around 1.3 times that of a human, and have a size of 2.3 times it. They have high encephalization quotients, at around 8.01. Females have extremely high creativity capability, being the strategists and main body of white-collar workers. Their brain layout is slightly familiar, with most places in the same area as humans. However, almost all of the regions are hyperdeveloped, and there is a high degree of redundancy in the brain, such as 4 frontal lobes and 2 olfactory lobes. They have much more innate knowlege than humans, and their reflexes are far more subtle. Their spinal cord is much more important than other races, as all neural connections except facial and some neck region movement are controlled by impulses from it. Language Gorkhan, since they can only think so fast, have a language speed around the same as most human languages. Their language has many consonants, with few vowels showing different parts of words. Most words only have one syllable, but have several consonants. Their voice box is extremely odd compared to other races, as they can say several different consonants at once, such as a collection of cgkx. Much of their language is like this. Translation technology is hard to use with just voice recognition, so it has to map out vocal brainwaves and synthesize a voice. There are several cases, genders, and moods in the Gorkhan language. Most ideas are easy to vocalize between themselves, but not to other species. Technical vocabulary is usually compound, and there is an interesting abbreviation system, with mainly showing vowels. There are 6 gender conjugations and 8 tenses in their speech. Culture Gorkhan have a culture based on the betterment of quality of life and happiness, and are very unmilitaristic. They are led by a democracy, with a collection of elected representatives in a council. These do most diplomatic actions in the empire. There is no sort of hiearchy or caste system, but many extremist groups have been formed to point out Gorkhan superiority, in a sort of social darwinism against other races. Their government is highly centered on capitalism as well. Gorkhan are put into a free, basic school from the ages of 3 to 10, where they learn basic maths, some sciences, some history, and learn how to act in society. They then are given an exam after this school to see their intelligence and creativity. Both men and women are given this, but women usually score higher. Those who get a high enough percentage go to a higher optional school which is paid for, or go to do labor or work as a soldier. Those who choose to go to the higher school go to specialized classes based on their skills and interests. Here, they learn advanced things such as strategy, physics and chemistry, algebra and calculus, medicine, engineering, and astronomy. They have little means of music, almost all being introduced synthesized music from Zeinestrel, but rather entertain themselves with television programs and books. They also do many sports, and have annual competitions for these. Higher arts are things such as painting and sculpture, which many Gorkhan are extremely skilled at. Some paintings and sculptures are worth an equivalent of hundreds of millions of american dollars. Their buildings tend to be built of reinforced stone, and are often painted elaborately. They are usually organically shaped, and blend in with nature. Interior design is luxurious, and there are usually many areas to store food. Law Gorkhan law is strongly based on the protectance of life and property, so theft, murder, and abuse are the highest offenses. Crimes occur more often in less wealthy areas of the empire, and areas such as those are highly enforced with soldiers and police forces. Those who do first and second offenses of crimes not previously listed are just held in custody for a few weeks, but those who preform those previously listed and third offenses are cursed by a priest in their religion and are executed publically, after a mantra of hatred is preformed by the audience. Religion Gorkhan have a Janist-like belief, with no actual deity, but all living beings have souls, and that living beings should not be harmed unnecesarily. They believe strongly in the belief that emotions such as love and hatred determine one's fate. They preform several mantras and religious services, repeating laws of their religion. Their religion positively affects their law, as they believe in the right to life. Technology Gorkhan are a technologically advanced race, with FTL capacities and nanobots. Their ideology does not permit them to have AI's, however. Spaceships The Gorkhan navy is very large, containing tens of thousands of ships. However, most ships are transport and trade ships. FTL is enabled with hyperdrives, allowing them to travel up to 370 thousand c. ''They have powerful magnetic fields and kinetic barriers to protect their ships from being vaporized by charged particles and debris when accelerating. They have also been researching a way to handle the Casimir effect, to allow them to travel through wormholes safely. They are currently around 70 percent to creating an actual hypothetical device to do so. Their ships range from a few hundred meters for transportation to 500 kilometers long for trade and warships. Non-aggressive ships are usually made of titanium and iridium, for simplicity. Warships are made of carbon materials, such as graphene. They are also developing nanodiamond, which they can produce in tiny amounts. \ The smallest ships used on the battlefield are cruisers, ranging from 5km-10km long, which are armed with a few mass drivers, missiles, and laser weaponry. After them are the frigates, which are 10-25 km long, which are armed with several mass drivers and advanced lasers. They are also armed with antimatter weaponry. After frigates come battleships, which are the main fighting force. These are 25-70 km long, and have thousands of mass drivers. They can carry cruisers, and have several hundred missile launchers. These are the start of the ship class which cannot go into atmosphere, but can go into orbit. There are several smaller classes after that, but the main one following them are carriers. These range from 120-200 km long, and carry smaller ships and supplies for large ships. They also deploy landing ships to let troops onto the surface. There are then dreadnoughts, which are immense, ranging from 200 to 500 km long. They are armed with antiproton beams, antimatter missiles, fusion bombs, giant mass drivers, graphene spears called Rktag-spjut, or just spears, which spear an enemy ship at .0005 ''c, and then use it as a club against other ships or immobilize it so it can be destroyed. However, these only have a range of 150000 km, so it is only can be used at close range and on larger ships. Large, sessile bodies known as 'Gorkhan Citadels' are used in interstellar space to hold the vast majority of their population. These are usually spherical and the size of a small moon and are on average 4000-7000 km in diameter. These do have FTL capabilities, and have a multi-layered kinetic barrier called a Ljusk-skyrgd, or light shield. This uses both repulsor fields and cold plasma to render most attacks harmless. The ship is protected by a fleet of one dreadnaught, 15 battleships, and a varied number of others. Communications Gorkhan use quantum tunneling as their method of communication, allowing very quick communication. It is not as quick as Laoine quantum entanglement, however. Their previous method incorporated a mass-reduced FTL enabled device which held the information transferred. Computing They have created quantum computers, capable of doing trillions of calculations per second. However, they do not permit themselves to create AI's, since their religious beliefs believe in a soul in all living beings. They store information on the atomic scale, with certain percentages of particles facing up or down. Quantum computers are used in adaptive robots, and smaller scales of them are used to precisely aim missiles and mass drivers. Robots are used to do work on uninhabited worlds, often drilling down to find ores, then liquidizing the planet to create citadels. Soldiers on the battlefield are accompanied by robots, programmed to kill only the enemy. Nanobots have also been created, which can aid in mining and repair. These also can take apart enemy ships by being launched in a canister and then oxidize or degrade the metals to a point where it is extremely weak and can be destroyed quickly or when it just falls apart. Weaponry Gorkhan ships are armed with several kinds of weapons, the most common being lasers, most being small but powerful meant for cutting through metals, antimatter missiles at 200m-1.7km long, and large mass drivers. These launch wads of squashing copper and iron at relativistic speeds towards a target, which can tear apart ships, and rip through kinetic barriers. Their bombs are usually either antimatter or thermonuclear, producing up to 1.2 gigatonnes of TNT equivalent each. These are highly effective in orbital bombardment. Infantry use railguns and rocket launchers, loaded with high explosives travelling at up to 5 times the speed of sound. Their railguns can be upgraded with incendiary and armor piercing ammo, and some use cryo and explosive ammo. Specialists can plant mines and claymores for taking out grouped infantry. Snipers use shells of graphene-coated titanium bullets which are rocket guided to take out high-ranking officers at a distance of up to 6 km away. Infantry are accompanied by tanks, with small versions of mass drivers and a wide variety of railcannons. These often use plasma jets to take out rows of infantry. Some Mechs adopted from Laoine have been seen, where Gorkhan sit and control a large mech with customized weaponry. Several jets and bomber planes can be used, which can fly at mach 10 and fire solid railguns and missiles. Bombers can drop small nuclear bombs and explosives, which clear areas for infantry to move in. Military Doctrine Those who do not do labor and do not go to higher school enter the military as a basic soldier. Those who specialize in tactics become high-ranking officers. Gorkhan, due to the conservation of life, try to equip their soldiers with advanced defence and counter-explosive techniques. Generals and soldiers are put through an extra year of training where they learn about strategy and past battles so they can memorize advanced techniques. They show extreme caution during battles, and try to exploit weaknesses. They have four main fighting styles - heavy raids against small fleets, threats with fleets to avoid casualties whatsoever, repeated skirmishes, and what they call Riktn-rsar, or direct destruction. Heavy raids usually consist of a large detatchment of frigates and battleships exiting FTL and attacking swiftly at the first moment. Against large fleets, they use a technique called 'repeated skirmishes.' In this, they have small detachments of a large fleet charging at the enemy, then firing a few missiles and then running to the back of the fleet to deal with damages. This repeats in waves every one or two minutes, until the fleet is severely deteriorated. They open communications to ask for the opponent's surrender. If they do, they are taken into custody and kept in prison citadels. Riktn-rsar is a rarely used method when the fleet is too large to do either of the above. The Gorkhan take a large fleet of many dreadnaughts and hundreds of battleships and fire until either the opposing fleet is destroyed or at most 50% of their fleet is destroyed. They fire all of their weaponry at a weak point of the opposing fleet, and then destroy the rest of it with antiproton beams and lasers. Planetary bombardment is done with frigates and cruisers firing missiles onto a planet's surface, usually firing at military bases and cities. They then use dropships to land and deploy tanks and infantry, which clear out cities. History The Gorkhan have a long and steady history, evolving over billions of years on Rgorok. Origin The Gorkhan developed sapience at around 3.902(.000) AM, and built their first city at 3.979(.992) AM. They lived through a 19,000 year golden age, where they had an extremely stagnated scientific sector, until 3.998(.324), when they discovered luxury resources such as steam power. Electricity and machinery were quickly developed, and they quickly colonized other planets in their system, not very aware of their expanding sun. By 3.998(.983), they discovered FTL, and colonized nearby stars in the Ngrakk Nebula. Star Travel The Gorkhan mapped and explored several thousand star systems, and began production of the citadels and navy. In 3.999(.312), they met the Zeinestrel, and a massive cultural exchange occured. They leaped forward in technology by almost 500 years, and began helping the Zeinestrel with their war with the Yuharon. In 3.999(.999), they met the Laoine, and became mutual friends with them. Relations with Other Known Races The Gorkhan have not met many other races, and still have quite a bit of the galaxy to explore, as they are technically the youngest race in the galaxy. Zeinestrel Gorkhan met the Zeinestrel as first contact, and now assist each other as allies. Laoine The Gorkhan met the Laoine recently, but have been ignored so far in attempts to ally. Yuharon The Gorkhan are currently at war with the Yuharon in the Laoine-Yuharon-Zeinestrel War. Category:Omnivores Category:Animals Category:Sapient Beings Category:Polemos Galaxy